On Saturday, the NFL announced that it had fined Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams for an obscene gesture while celebrating a touchdown. On Sunday, Lions running back Jahmyr Gibbs was given a 15-yard penalty for taunting as he celebrated a touchdown.
Lions coach Dan Campbell says he’s fine with players celebrating, but not fine with the players doing anything that results in a penalty.
“I tell our guys, ‘Hey, as long as you don’t cost us 15,’” Campbell said. “I’m good with whatever they do. So they have fun with it, they are creative, they like to push the boundaries of whatever those are. I know our guys have fun with it and I think that’s important. They enjoy it, so it’s all good.”
Asked about the NFL tolerating more celebrations than it used to, Campbell noted that sometimes the league fines or penalizes players, and other times the league uses celebrations as part of its content.
“Well, that depends on what that is, whether the league let’s it happen, right?” Campbell said. “They’ll use whatever they need to the content.”
The good news for the Lions is that they’ve had plenty of reasons to celebrate this season. As long as that’s the case, Campbell will be happy — even though he said during his own playing career there were no scripted celebrations: “A spike was as far as I got.”
